96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — It has been remarked, that our country's glory 

 is its cultivated soil. The tilling of the earth was the first employment 

 given by the Supreme Ruler to the human race ; it has ever been 

 the first step to civilization, and those nations that have been the most 

 distinguished for their devotion to this calling, have also been the most 

 celebrated for literature, science, and the fine arts. It is the founda- 

 tion of all national and individual prosperity and wealth ; the basis 

 on which rest commerce, manufactures, and all the various great in- 

 terests that unite to make up the sum of human happiness ; and, in 

 the language of our own Washington, whose benign countenance seems, 

 from the canvas, [here the President pointed to Stuart's portrait,] to 

 repeat again, " It is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most 

 noble employment of man." 



Horticulture and Floriculture^ and their kindred branches, are but high- 

 er and more advanced departments of the science ; the arts that teach us 

 to develop and improve the rich fruits and floral beauties that lie treasured 

 in the lap of mother earth, and to adorn and embellish her luxuriant bosom 

 with the endless diversity of her productions, as she displays her ever-va- 

 rying charms, in tree, fruit, and flower, from the lofty cedar of Lebanon, 

 to the humble lily of the valley. 



It were easy to cite a long li.st of the illustrious men who have bestowed 

 on this pursuit their distinguished approbation ; of poets who have sung 

 its praises ; of theologians and philosophers who have extolled its virtues 

 and pleasures ; of heroes and statesmen, and the master spirits of the 

 world, who, having received all the honor and glory that could be conferred 

 on them by their fellow-men, have retired to its calm and peaceful labors, 

 to spend the evening of a busy life, in the contemplation of all that is 

 beautiful and sublime in creation, and to enjoy "God's blessings as they 

 spring fresh from the earth." 



The recurrence of another anniversary, suggests a review of the pro- 

 gress and condition of our institution. 



Sixteen years ago this day, its first exhibition was held in the Exchange 

 Coflee House, in this city, and as an illustration of the great success and 

 prosperity that has attended the eflbrts of its members, I quote from the 

 published Report of the Society. 



The number of contributors on that occasion was thirty-two. 



The baskets and dishes of fruits were less than one hundred, and the 

 amount of premiums ofiisred, less than two hundred dollars. 



During the present anniversary, there have been placed on our tables 

 more than fourteen hundred dishes of fruits, and the premiums offered by 

 the Society this year, exceed thirteen hundred dollars. 



And as a further illustration, I notice by this Report, that the contribu- 

 tion of Robert Manning, the great Fomologist of America, consisted of 



